July 11, 2005
Filming a documentary about pornography.
Looking at their film, the documentarians realize that they have simply made pornography. (Watch out: the link, to a NYT review, launches an audio track for "Mamma Mia.")
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
The people in the porn subculture are fascinating, but after you've seen "Boogie Nights," what's left to tell?
The films themselves are all pretty much alike. What's to document? That's why I've never understood people who have porn libraries. I would think 2 or 3 films would pretty much cover the genre.
Maybe the porn documentary is a way for certain individuals to watch porn without feeling like they're watching porn? "Inside Deep Throat" (which I haven't seen) felt that way when I read the reviews.
Frontline did a show on the porn industry a couple years ago that had some things to tell... there's some stuff going on that's pretty shocking. Not in terms of sex, but violent content. Ugh, I'll say no more.
The porn industry is pervasive out here. It's surprising how many and what kind of people get involved. But it is always almost guaranteed profit.
I have a friend who's a second grade teacher, her father's a wealthy lawyer, her mother a city official -- and they're all in the porn biz. When she told me I about fell over.
But her brother got in the business and they help out by cooking for the crew and delivering it during shoots. They also invested heavily in production.
She admits it's a sleazy business and all the actors are drug addicts but they're in it.
I saw "Inside Deep Throat," which was a singularly untitilating film, making it a failure as porn. What makes it work as a documentary is that it doesn't so much focus on the people involved, but the social battle over the film and its repurcussions.
"She is told that the best male porn stars are ex-marines." That made me smile.
Miklos: You are right. It was Lizzie Borden and the movie is called "Working Girls." It is unlike any other movie about prostitutes. Most movies that want to depict the downside of prostitution show violence and drugs. In this film, working in a brothel is a lot like having a crappy office job, with an annoying boss who lectures you about "office" procedures, customers you have to pretend to like, the sheer tedium of it all, etc.
I think Borden made this movie because of her disgust at "Pretty Woman."
But it doesn't have to follow that making a doc about porn necessarily becomes porn any more than, say, making a 9/11 film is necessarily obscene.
Usage question: why is "porn star" the common term for an actor in a porn movie? Can they really all be stars? Why are their no porn character actors? Or porn supporting actors?
peter hoh: You've hit upon a great idea, peter! There's a career goal: to be the Porn Warren Oates!
Post a Comment